Bloomsburg University: A Leader in Concussion Research

When you visit Bloomsburg on a weekend this fall, you might hear cheers from Bloomsburg University’s stadium, and you’ll know a game is in progress. What you might not know is that these athletes all participate in ongoing research at the University’s new Institute for Concussion Research and Services. It’s focus is one of the hottest topics in sports today – the consequences of concussions. Athletes sustain over 2 million concussions a year, yet only half are diagnosed and treated. You might think these injuries only involve football, but they happen in sports from soccer to lacrosse.

The Institute is developing a better understanding of concussions, their symptoms and outcomes, and providing information to assist health care professionals in making better decisions about when injured athletes are healthy enough to “return-to-play”. It brings together university faculty/clinicians from Exercise Science, Audiology and Speech Pathology, Psychology, Biochemistry, and Athletics. Both graduate and undergraduate students help conduct the multi-disciplinary research projects.

Their two-part testing system uses a special virtual reality system to test memory, reaction time and balance, and a clinical balance assessment instrument assesses visual, inner ear, and neuromuscular feedback. If a student sustains a concussion, comparisons between baseline and post-injury measures help determine when he or she is healthy enough to return to competition. Their research is part of a $30 million NCAA-U.S. Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (C.A.R.E.) Consortium, which will involve over 25,000 student athletes at 30 colleges and universities. So when you next make your reservation at the Inn for Bloomsburg University’s sports or alumni events, you can be proud of the University’s leading role in providing better care for current and future athletes across the nation.